Sunday, December 19, 2010

Fantasy football playoff time


Although I was eliminated in my I-really-care-about-this-league league last week, I'm still alive in my high school buddies league and doing rather well.

Observations:

1. If Austin Collie had played 16 games this season, he would have been the Fantasy MVP. Easily. I picked him up after week 1 and enjoyed the ride for 5 weeks, and he would have really helped this week too (8 catches, 87 yards, 2TD's)..... and could have been more if he didn't get hurt. Shame.

2. Jeremy Maclin and Tashard Choice went OFF the week after I desperately needed them. Sometimes that's just what happens in fantasy sports though: timing. Playoffs are a weird thing: studs turn into duds, no-names turn into heroes. Unpredictable, but the crap-shootness of it is part of the reason it keeps people coming back.

3. Vincent Jackson = God. Too bad he wont' be a Charger next year.

4. Ray Rice seemed off the whole season but looked like a SAINT for fantasy owner against the Saints. Maybe a sophomore slump? Great situation in Baltimore, good QB to throw to him, efficient offense. Like.

5. Words cannot describe how much of a fantasy freak Mike Vick is. He's a top-tier RB and a top-tier QB rolled up into one. Basically, a joker in a game of high card. And someone in my league benched him IN THE PLAYOFFS in favor of peyton manning. He's now eliminated.

6. LOVED that the Eagles lost to the Giants. Allows Bears more assurance of playoff spot (we have tiebreak against Eagles, Giants have it against the Bears). And the Eagles look.......better.

7. Lesson for next year: take a chance on young, rising WR's. (Probably true for RB's, too, but I was burned so bad by Ryan Mathews this year I hesitate to recommend it). Cases in point: Hakeem Nicks, Jeremy Maclin, Percy Harvin, Roddy White, Dwayne Bowe, Mike Wallace. These are the names at the top of the WR rankings at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, I had Michael Crabtree. The exception to the rule. Damn.

8. Did you know who Arian Foster or Peyton Hillis were at the end of last season? Neither did I. But they're #1 and #3 in RB rankings and probably made dreams or shattered them this season.
Actually, neither did very well this week despite pretty good matchups.......another sign of the randomness of fantasy playoffs.

9. Kicker: you wouldn't think it w's a big deal, but it is: David Akers has led the league the last few years in points scored, and you'll take the HUGE playoff weeks he put up the last few. This one's easy: Pick akers as your kicker next year, probably in the last round of your draft.
If not akers, just get an accurate guy with an okay leg without a history of mental problems (i.e. NOT Garret Hartley).

10. Good teams have high-scoring fantasy defenses.

11. Don't buy the reniassance Running Back fluke of LaDanian Tomlinson. Don't touch him next year......Youth is in in the NFL.

12. Don't invest yourself too heavily in fantasy football. You'll kill yourself worrying over your team and write a "It's the Worst Day of your life and the World is Ending" post on your blog. And most people WILL lose...only a few people can win every year.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan

No comments: